Endeavour Energy, PowerSavers
Western Sydney, Australia
1,366 households
Solutions
Be.Utility
Helping households keep their electricity bills in check and rewarding them for their efforts.
Endeavour Energy is responsible for the distribution of electricity to 2.7 million people living and working across Sydney’s Greater West, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Illawarra and the South Coast of NSW.
GreenBe’s purpose-built residential digital customer engagement portal (DCEP) for energy (Be.Utility) was deployed for Endeavour Energy’s Future Grid team. Using a single digital platform to engage and on-board energy customers in the network area for residential demand management (DM) programs was an innovative first for Endeavour Energy.
“It’s good for our customers, good for the business and good for the planet.”
– Leanne Pickering, Chief Customer & Strategy Officer at Endeavour Energy
The Endeavour Energy PowerSavers digital suite featured a custom-branded web and mobile responsive utility portal, native iOS and Android apps. The technology also included GreenBe’s automated demand management (DM) system for the calculation of household baselines and expected usage – a highly customised ’10 in 10’ customer baseline methodology also taking into account solar generation.
The PowerSavers app was designed to assist Endeavour Energy customers in reducing their electricity bills – a single platform to improve customer engagement, education and residential demand management (DM) for all of Endeavour Energy’s programs, including:
- PeakSaver: energy demand response (DR) program rewarding smart meter households for reducing energy usage during times of peak demand.
- CoolSaver: air conditioner (AC) control program for customers with a compatible air conditioner.
- SolarSaver: battery energy storage control program for customers with a compatible solar-battery.
- CommunitySaver: a voluntary energy challenge approach to DR for households without smart metering or controllable technology.
- AtHomeSaver: supporting customers through education and advice impacted by COVID-19 and experiencing financial difficulties.
“Knowing when and how you use electricity is the first step to reducing your electricity bill. By making small changes some customers could save hundreds of dollars each year.”
– Leanne Pickering, Chief Customer & Strategy Officer at Endeavour Energy
Endeavour Energy’s key objectives were met and exceeded:
- Customer recruitment targets were exceeded for all programs (approximately eight times higher than previous Endeavour Energy recruitment efforts).
- Significantly reduced customer acquisition costs.
- Increased brand awareness, building trust.
- Evidence of improved customer engagement, recruitment and on-boarding.
- Delivering energy education and influencing behaviour change.
- Incorporating live AMI data to provide energy customers with near real-time consumption feedback.
- First-time use of digital channels to drive usage reductions, including app push, SMS and direct email – enabling personalised feedback and ongoing engagement.
- Streamlined management of residential demand management (DM) programs.
- Infinite scalability and agility of the DCEP.
- Automated rewards system in the form of either a digital gift card or donation to a charity.
About the project
The Endeavour Energy network spans 24,800 square kilometres and is made up of more than 185 major substations, 416,000 power poles and 32,000 smaller substations connected by 47,000 kilometres (more than the distance from Sydney to London and back) of underground and overhead cables.
The PowerSavers digital rewards and behaviour change program was deployed to help reduce the amount of electricity used during times of peak demand, when many households run high energy consumption appliances at the same time on particularly hot days. Meeting this demand requires investment and expansion, despite peak demand days only occurring a few times each year.
To help alleviate the need for infrastructure investment, customers in targeted geographic areas of network constraint were invited to participate in PowerSavers and help achieve network-wide peak demand usage reductions.
GreenBe solution: Be.Utility WLS, iOS iPhone and iPad app, Android app, desktop web and mobile responsive portal
System integration: Historian, Bureau Of Meteorology (BOM), Metra Weather (for solar irradiance data)
Learn more
To request a copy of the Endeavour Energy PowerSavers evaluation report please email us at [email protected]
Key outcomes
An average demand reduction of 4.6kWh/household was achieved on DM event days. The highest reduction by a single household on an event day being 38.67kWh.
Participating households stated their expectations had been met or exceeded – reporting the tips, challenges and overall program to be rewarding and useful.
Endeavour Energy customers collectively participated in over 11,100 energy literacy challenges – engaging in energy saving tips to reduce their electricity.
